An off beat look at Indonesian and South East Asian football from the terraces or the pub

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Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Unbeaten Muang Thong?

Muang Thong United are determined to go through the Thai Premier League unbeaten. Which is a daft thing to say cos I'm pretty sure on the opening day of every season around the world players will be sitting in their dressing rooms blocking out the drone of the coach and imagining going through a season unbeaten just like what they do in Football Manager.

For Muang Thong though that dream took a step closer to being realised after they edged Osotspa 2-1 in their last home game in front of 12,000.

They didn't play last weekend, neither did second placed Chonburi who were on AFC Cup duty, but Buriram United weren't able to close the gap after losing 1-0 at home to BEC Tero.

At the other end of the table TTM Chiang Mai appear to be doomed and good riddance say I. OK, TTM may be one of the clubs performing week in week out in the days before Thai people discovered local football but moving location every season or two is not a good business model and anyway smoking is so 1980s.

BBCU are just above them in 17th and they are another blast from the past. Sort of. They used to be called Chula United who used to be called Chula Sinthana. Frequent name changes and merges don't seem to be doing anything for a club's credibility n'est ce pas?

The other relegation spot is occupied by Thai Port, another of the traditional clubs in Thai football. They have managed to reach three cup finals in the last three years, winning two of them and even won 4-1 away to Sriwijaya in the AFC Cup.

But cack handed management has failed to build on a good squad and they have pretty much gone tits up but the players are showing some spirit having beaten BEC Tero recently 2-1 only to follow that up with a home defeat against Samut Songkram.

Who is coming up? Well last year we saw BBCU, Wuachon, who were specially invented for the season, and Chainat come up to the TPL and none have made much of an impression.

Ratchaburi are in pole position and could make a good away trip for fans of Bangkok based teams. Big spending Suphanburi are six points behind them while Sri Racha and Bangkok United eachhave 61 points, seven behind the leaders.